one year later:the patio’s finally done

In an attempt to deepen relationships with our neighbors, last Christmas Kelli and I decided to turn a small area of gravel in front of our house into a patio. We figured that if we were out front more often, it would give us more opportunity to catch up, be in touch with what's happening in the neighborhood, and maybe even help us meet neighbors we have yet to meet.  I started the project a year ago committing to have a finished product by the end of the month.  Wishful thinking.  A year and a month later – it's done and the monkey is of my back.  So far the intent of the patio is working – our next door neighbor shared tools with us (and even helped himself one Saturday), the neighbors on the other side let us borrow a trailer to haul some of the excess dirt away,  and various neighbors have come over to see the finished product (two even came over when I rented a tile saw this week wondering what the awful noise was!)  Anyway, it's done and in the last few months we decided to ditch the fountain that needed work for a propane firepit – a great move I think.  Check out the before and after pictures below:

BTW: there's talk of a "patio party" next Saturday – details to come! 

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the symbol communities

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The faith community (it's really more of a community of communities) that has begun to emerge here in the East Valley finally has an online presence @ www.symbolcommunities.org.  To help discover our identity together, we are tackling some exciting projects (which I will post about soon) and have scheduled a worship gathering (or collective) for Ash Wednesday entitled "40: a symbolic journey".  We are unsure of what the future holds for us, but we are sure that sharing a common identity forged around a shared way of life (living a symbolic life) is the road we're on.

 If you are in the Phoenix area and would like to share in "40" with us or would like to learn more about the symbol communities, email me at znewsome@mac.com.

 

The Symbol Life

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While in Northern Ireland last week, I had a chance to talk further with others who are a part of an emerging global community deemed,"The Symbol Society". While this society is in it's infancy stages (we've been accused of having a name and a logo and so were trying to form something logo-worthy around those pieces of identity), what is emerging from this conversation is a sharing in a common way of life – a symbolic one.  This symbolic life attempts to as Kester has said recently, "… to point to something beyond ourselves. It is to live in hope, realizing that everything we do will have some ill effect somewhere, but believing that to keep raising symbols will, in some small way, have some greater impact at some unknown time in the future."  I like Kester's definition of this symbolic life. 

There is something wildy attractive to me about intentionally living in a way that points to an alternative, counter-cultural existence found in the kingdom of God.   As symbols we will fail to fully represent what/who it is our actions point to, but at some point all symbols fail. After all, a symbol is not the thing it represents – it just communicates something about it.  It is my hope that my existence (along with all those on this symbolic journey) will communicate well the beauty, the hope, the generosity, and the love that is central to the kingdom and the king we point to.

It is along these symbolic lines that a local community is beginning to take shape here in Phoenix.  It is appropriately called, "symbol", or more formally, "the symbol communities". 

May we be effective symbols. 

 

Site changes

I've decided to simply life (or at least the blogging part) a bit and merge the two blogs I currently post to, this one and therevolutionarylife.com. What this will mean is more of a death to therevolutionarylife and a re-birth to zacknewsome.com.  I once felt a need to carry on two different sets of conversations for two different sets of readers – this distinction has recently disappeared. 

This site is getting a bit of a facelift currently – so please forgive the chaos.  It should be up and running with some new features before the end of the week. 

UPDATE: the changes are mostly done in terms of features/layout.  Just some design tweaks to go. It's a bit busy for my taste, but there is much more info (like the listening & reading lists). 

@ Soliton in Northern Ireland

Kelli and I are taking part in the Celtic Soliton Sessions in Northern Ireland along with Andrew Jones, Jonny Baker, Pete Rollins, Ian Mobsby, Si Johnston, Gareth Higgins, Kester Brewin, and others. Thought provoking sessions so far as we move tonight to the North Coast for the residential portion of the weekend.

Some highlights so far:

– Having a pint with Pete Rollins talking about community and the "trickster" role of Ikon in Belfast. (picture coming soon).

– Meeting Ian Mobsby who leads a community called Moot in London.

 – Being exposed to the division, the hate, and the prejudice that has been such a part of Northern Ireland's history and how it affects the church here.

We anticipate that there is much more to come.

Here are some pictures we have taken so far 

Flagstaff with Friends

 
Community life has been stretching recently, but no matter how challenging it gets to intentionally “share life” with others, I can’t stop smiling about how truly meaningful and fun it is. These pictures from a recent trip to the mountains with our faith community captures the beauty of it well I think.

Timely words from Thomas Merton

The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects (italics mine), to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation with violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his work for peace. It destroys her own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.

                                                           – Thomas Merton
 

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